Religion: Up&Up

U.S. Roman Catholics are having their own population explosion, and the
gains are making problems for their church. Sociologist Dr. Donald N.
Barrett, of the University of Notre Dame, told a meeting of the
American Catholic Sociological Society last week that there are now an
estimated 43,650,000 U.S. Catholics, and that during the decade
1950-59, the Catholic population increased by 35.8% while the total
U.S. population grew by only 16.6%.

The number of Catholics is increasing three times as fast as the numbers
of seminarians and sisters, twice as fast as priests, and almost four
times as fast as parishes. "If lay...